In order to process network packets, such as Ethernet packets, it is necessary to extract certain fields from the packets. The values contained in extracted fields help decide how a packet should be handled. For example, switching utilizes the 48-bit MAC destination address inside the Ethernet header to decide which port the packet should be sent to. Similarly, routing utilizes the 32-bit destination IP address contained within the IPv4 layer. Current hardware solutions utilize fixed extraction mechanisms to extract such information from the packets. Determination of where relevant information to be extracted lies within the packet is made at implementation time. However, current hardware solutions cannot handle evolving networking protocols.